DDR4 vs DDR3: Little Comparison & What To Expect

DDR4 DRAM memory technology is set to replace DDR3 soon later this year, but what is DDR4 exactly, and what are the advantages of such technology compared to the DDR3? Well then, let’s take a brief look at DDR4, along the advantages that it promises to the table, with the help of a nice infographic from our friends at Crucial Memory.

EFFICIENT, FASTER, & HIGHER CAPACITY MODULES: Compared to DDR3, the DDR4 technology features a lower power consumption @ 1.2v in order to operate at its standard frequency. Low voltage standards are around 1.05v, which is great for mobile devices. Capacity is a huge leap too at 16GB/stick, compared to DDR3’s 8GB/stick, thanks to DDR4’s higher density modules. Speed is rated at 2133Mhz, and is effectively twice as fast compared to the DDR3’s 1000Mhz standards. Theoretically, DDR4 is going to be much faster compared to DDR3, but will introduce higher latency compared to DDR3.

IN CLOSING:The future of memory technology with DDR4 is looking great, but there are caveats. You see, DDR3 uses Multi-Drop BUS topology, while the next-gen DDR4 will utilize Point-to-Point topology. In layman’s term, DDR4 will only operate at Single Channel with 1 stick, Dual Channel with 2 sticks, and will only operate at Quad Channel with 4 sticks respectively. That said, you’re left with little headroom for upgrade, as you’re bound with a maximum of 32GB for Dual Channel configuration for example.

Feature/Option

DDR3

DDR4

DDR4 Advantage

Voltage (core and I/O)

1.5V

1.2V

Reduces memory power demand

VREF inputs

2 – DQs and CMD/ADDR

1 – CMD/ADDR

VREFDQ now internal

Low voltage standard

Yes (DDR3L at 1.35V)

Anticipated (likely 1.05V)

Memory power reductions

Data rate (Mb/s)

800, 1066, 1333, 1600, 1866, 2133

1600, 1866, 2133, 2400, 2667, 3200

Migration to higher‐speed I/O

Densities

512Mb–8Gb

2Gb–16Gb

Better enablement for large-capacity memory subsystems

Internal banks

8

16

More banks

Bank groups (BG)

0

4

Faster burst accesses

tCK – DLL enabled

300 MHz to 800 MHz

667 MHz to 1.6 GHz

Higher data rates

tCK – DLL disabled

10 MHz to 125 MHz (optional)

Undefined to 125 MHz

DLL-off now fully supported

Read latency

AL + CL

AL + CL

Expanded values

Write latency

AL + CWL

AL + CWL

Expanded values

DQ driver (ALT)

40Ω

48Ω

Optimized for PtP (point-to-point) applications

DQ bus

SSTL15

POD12

Mitigate I/O noise and power

RTT values (in Ω)

120, 60, 40, 30, 20

240, 120, 80, 60, 48, 40, 34

Support higher data rates

RTT not allowed

READ bursts

Disables during READ bursts

Ease-of-use

ODT modes

Nominal, dynamic

Nominal, dynamic, park

Additional control mode; supports OTF value change

ODT control

ODT signaling required

ODT signaling not required

Ease of ODT control, allows non-ODT routing on PtP applications

Multipurpose register (MPR)

Four registers – 1 defined, 3 RFU

Four registers – 3 defined, 1 RFU

Provides additional specialty readout

In addition, no current motherboard and CPU in the market supports DDR4. Meaning you have to buy a new motherboard, and CPU to take advantage of the said technology which will be probably available upon the release of the next-gen chipsets and micro-processors. Reports suggests that Intel’s upcoming Enthusiasts grade Haswell-E chips will support DDR4, while AMD will support it probably in the late 2014 based on JEDEC’s roadmap. Like any other technological advancements, expect the initial cost of DDR4 to hurt your wallet.

Intel and several memory manufacturers showcased the DDR4 technology at the recently concluded Intel Developer Forum, and event suggests that DDR4 will see its first real world action with servers, rather than with consumer grade hardwares with the exception of the soon to be released Haswell-E which is based on Intel’s server grade chips.

6 Comments

Ravi Luttikhuizen on August 10, 2015 at 9:15 PM

The infographic at the top is misinformation, the highest non-OC DDR3 speed is 1866MHZ (1.9~GHZ), currently DDR4 maxes out at 3.6GHZ OC, while factory OC’d DDR3 runs at speeds up to 3.1GHZ out of the box with stock voltage, also, the density is a blatant lie since there are DDR3 DIMMs up to 32GB. Please, for the sake of science correct yourself and do your research better, this article is a shameful display of half-baked facts.

DDR2 goes up to 1066 MHz actually, and DDR2 achieved 400 MHz by 2004. Technically, 2004 is also the year when it entered the 533 MHz territory, but 400 MHz is the prevailing speed on that year as far as consumer availability is concerned.

Ravi Luttikhuizen on August 11, 2015 at 11:55 PM

Consumer availability is imo not a good thing to base objective charts on.

The article is older than – when JEDEC released the Non-OC 1866 MHz standard DDR3. Same goes for everything that you have said.

Ravi Luttikhuizen on August 11, 2015 at 11:54 PM

Still makes the charts inaccurate and overproportioned, because OC standards are also supported by many OEMs, and it was not said that this article is in any way exclusive to JEDEC standards, even if that may be the case, there always was 1600MHZ, still rendering this chart inaccurate, sorry for my rude commenting up there, i got a little carried away.